Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-10-21
Massachusetts and Virgin1a

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Massachusetts and Virginia.
There are indications that Senator
GEORGE FRIsBIE HoAR has walked mp.
rubbed his eyes, and started on a run
after the procession of events. For
years the Senator had been sleeping in
fancied security in a political fence
corner, and dreaming of the dead issues
of twenty years agone, while the pro-
cession was passing by. Believing, as
he did, that the whole State of Massa-
chusetts was as hide-bound as himself,
he never allowed it to enter his head
that his party could be left, nor that the
State could grasp new Issues. But a
change has come over the spirit
Of his dream-a change SO start
ling and realistic as to arouse
him as if by a shock. in recent
speech at Worcester he admOnished
his hearers that Fright in the Worces-
ter congressional district there were in
huences at work which if not speedily
counteracted would result in the loss Of
the district, and that this would lose the
State, other States, and the nation. !"
Worcester, he said, was the heart of
the Commonwealth and the key to the
nation. The Boston Hcrald in COM
menting on this says:
"Groat fellows they are up in Wor-
cester, and notaltogether bashful about
telling other people of it. All the more
reason why they should behave them
selves when they come together for
brotherly purposes.
Seeing that Senator HoARs claim for
Worcester is trenching upon Boston's
assumption that she is the hub of the
univsrse-which universe, according
to the BOstOnesc, consists of Massachu-
sets and few outlying provinces-it
would appear at first blush that the
Herdld's fling was inspired by envy.
But the evidence SO clearly points to
tho fact that Massachusetts has for
some time been striving to turn her
face to the morning that, when read
between the lines, the Hcrdld'S Ian
guage becomes very significant. The
Philadelphia E'ccniag Ieiegraph Gre
publican), in viewing the situation in
Massachusetts,, remarks
"What will be the effect of Senator
Hoar's desperate plea for harmony and
united effort remains to be seen, but 1t
must be clear to the most superficial
observer that the present situation in
Massachusetts is one calculated to fl
every good Republican with doubt and
fear.
Again
at is simply n solid and very sug-
gestivc fact, that in national contest
the greatest of the New England States
must now be put down in the doubt
full list.
1t would hardly be wise to count on
a sudden political revolution in Mas9a-
chusetts, but it may be claimed that the
outlook there is most encouraging for
the Democrats. What with the Boston
Hcrald and the Springfield RepabHcan
tabooing the introduction of dead issues
into the canvass, Republican papers
outside the State conceding the result
to be doubtful, and HoAR and other
bloody shirt shriskors recognizing that
a large element Of the Republican party
has gotten beyond the point where APP
peals to prejudice were all-powerful, the
political skies in Massachusetts are
bright and frightening.
If Virginia by her verdict on the Sth
of November shall make it apparent
that the solid South will not be broken
until the last Of the malignants is po-
litically dead, what may not be the eff
feet of that verdict in strengthening
the hands of the Democrats and dis
courasing the Republicans OF the Bay
State? Considering that SHERMAN, the
head and front of the malignants and
political vampires, is MAHoNE's choice
for President it stands to reason that
Virginia will next month fire, as far as
the Southis concerned, the first gun in
the presidential campaign.